London Irish cyclists head from Stanmore to Crumlin in Dublin to raise funds for hospitals

Eight sponsored cyclists from London’s Irish community set off from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore at 7am on Wednesday and arrived at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin, at 7pm on Friday.

They are raising funds for both hospitals. On Saturday evening a Charity Cycle Dinner for 300 people was held at The Radisson Blu St Helen’s in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, to celebrate the successful completion of the cycle ride and to raise more money for both charities.

The sponsored cycle ride is the latest in a series of events being organised as part of the RNOH London Irish Ward Appeal. The Appeal aims to build and fit out one of the RNOH’s new 32-bed adult wards.

The ward, which will be called the London Irish Ward, will treat patients with a range of complex conditions, such as bone tumours, spinal deformity and sarcoma, a rare form of cancer requiring highly specialised treatment.

As the end point of the cycle challenge was Dublin, it was decided that this particular event would also benefit Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

London Irish businessman Tim Kelly (centre) has been leading the fundraising for the new ward

To date, the London Irish Ward Appeal has already raised £553,664. The cyclists raised £56,000 from last week’s event which will be split equally between both the RNOH London Irish Ward Appeal and CMRF Crumlin with each receiving £28,000.

Organiser Alan O’Reilly said: “This event marks the culmination of many months of training for our dedicated cyclists. While the weather has relented over the last few weeks, our cyclists have all braved a number of cold, dark and often wet weekend mornings to get themselves into peak condition for this challenging 250- plus mile cycle”.

Irish World photographer Brendan Vaughan with one of the charity cyclists Dave Winston

Professor Tim Briggs, the RNOH’s Director of Strategy and External Relations, said: “The funds raised through this event, and through the London Irish Ward Appeal as a whole, will quite simply transform the experience of the RNOH’s patients.

“They will enable us to purchase a range of equipment which will significantly improve our patients’ comfort, and the quality of care we are able to offer them. We cannot thank the London Irish Community enough for their support.